This invention relates generally to providing information in one system to other systems and, more particularly, integration of applications through the use of network enabled print services.
Legacy applications often have substantial residual value within an organization. Such legacy applications, however, typically operate independently and are not designed to integrate within larger system environments, such as Internet, Intranet, and Extranet environments. Substantial savings could be achieved if existing applications can be integrated into other systems without modification.
The present invention, in one aspect, is a virtual printer that provides integration to a distributed application framework. Rather than sending application information to a physical printer, the print services route the application information over a network, to a system that extracts and processes the application information. In an exemplary embodiment, the virtual printer includes a print driver for capturing text to a temporary file and a communication system for compressing and communicating the captured text to a remote system.
Although virtual printing is described herein in the context of financial lending, virtual printing can be utilized in many other contexts. Generally, virtual printing can be used to facilitate communication between legacy applications and other applications. More specifically, any legacy application that can print application information to a printer can leverage the virtual printer to send the application information to another application via, for example, the Internet.